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Friday, December 7, 2007
16,480 Lose HOPE
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The number of HOPE-eligible public high school graduates has fallen 35.7 percent this year because of tougher grade point average requirements.
According to final figures from the Georgia Student Finance Commission, which I obtained this week, the number of scholarship-eligible students plummeted from 46,107 in the class of 2006 to 29,627 in the class of 2007.
That’s 16,480 students who might have qualified under the old rules that didn’t this year.
The proportion of HOPE scholars (compared to the overall size of the graduating class) also fell substantially — just 39.4 percent of 75,223 seniors pulled high enough grades to meet the new, stringent 3.0 standard this year. In 2006, when the scholarship was still based on a ‘B’ average and fewer classes, nearly 62 percent were deemed HOPE eligible.
In metro Atlanta, the percentages of HOPE students varied widely by school system. Most had fewer than half of their students qualify:
Fayette County: 60 percent
Forsyth County: 55 percent
Buford City: 52 percent
Decatur City: 49 percent
Fulton County: 48 percent
Cobb County: 47 percent
Gwinnett County: 42 percent
Coweta County: 41 percent
Rockdale County: 39 percent
DeKalb County: 36 percent
Marietta City: 35 percent
Douglas County: 35 percent
Clayton County: 35 percent
Cherokee County: 33 percent
Henry County: 32 percent
Atlanta City: 32 percent
